What Is the Best Way To Eat An Elephant?

I was once asked the question “What is the best way to eat an elephant?” This took me by surprise as I had no idea to how to answer the question. At the time I don’t even think I knew what the question meant. This question is very applicable to the current state of the taxi industry and I think it warrants some explanation.

The taxi industry seems to have a few elephants in the room, which the largest is ride-sharing. This is a product of the sharing economy, which is disrupting industries and leaving regulators dumbfounded as to how to regulate business. I don’t believe the sharing economy is a fad, but more an evolution of how we do business, but this is not a discussion about the sharing economy. This is a discussion about how we are going to eat the elephant in the room.

The Elephant

The elephant as I see it is this movement of customers to a ride-sharing network, which is really just a taxi with a mobile app. What has made this so successful is that ride-sharing has been concentrated on a few big name companies, and most notable is Uber. What this has done is allowed one company to create a global name and brand synonymous with a new product category, ride-sharing. This is similar to the U.S. tissue market, where Kleenex is synonymous with tissues. By allowing Uber to create such a brand, it leaves taxis at a disadvantage. There are a number of taxi companies all operating in the taxi industry, but none are marketing the taxi industry as a whole. The problem with this is that there is no clear cut plan to answer the question how to eat an elephant.

The Meal Plan

The plan that needs to be put into place is how to market taxis as being technologically savvy, as well as show that they are ready to compete. What needs to be done is taxis need to start marketing themselves in their own markets, which has not needed to be done in the past. This marketing is how you will build a client list, a brand, and your business. Also, getting on board with a Taxi App, as well as some small internet marketing techniques is a must. This is how ride-sharing has taken over the taxi industry, and implementing local marketing and business development strategies, will allow taxis to compete back.

What TaxiStartup Is Doing

The question now becomes where do I start? The good news is that TaxiStartup is here to assist the partner taxi companies in there quest to build their business in their local markets. We are going to begin a project that provides a business development “how to” series to assist our taxi partners with building their local business. This is the beginning of a new era in the taxi industry and we hope you are as excited as we are.

How Do We Eat An Elephant?

To begin our journey to building a global taxi and ride-sharing network, we need to first answer the question we started with.

“What is the best way to eat an elephant?”

The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. This is what TaxiStartup is doing, and we hope you will do the same.
Please stay tuned for our first lesson on how to build your taxi business in the age of technology.